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BY ELBERT HUBBARD 




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40 



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OVE, labor and laughter are expres- 
sions of HEALTH PLUS. \ 

GOOD HEALTH is the sequence of ft 
proper NOURISHMENT. 
PROPER NOURISHMENT does not imply I 
"course dinners" or condiments of foreign 
accent — these are attributes of the "white I 
lights." 

PROPER NOURISHMENT for men and I 
women who work — have things to do — = 

i mental or physical — is the wholesome, sim- | 
pie, honest food such as our mothers or grand- 
mothers prepared before the days of " substi- } 
tutes." 
THE HARTFORD LUNCH specializes in I 
OLD-FASHIONED HOME COOKING— £ 
I NEW ENGLAND STYLE. \ 

{ FRESH FRUITS AND BERRIES in their j 
1 season with REAL LARD and BUTTER for ? 
ij pies and pastries. * 

OLD-FASHIONED " DOUGHNUTS " with ' 
the hole where it ought to be. j 

! PUDDINGS, rich with MILK and EGGS— f 
i BREAD and ROLLS raised with yeast in the ft 
| OLD-FASHIONED WAY. * 

| It is in our BAKERY that we express our art . I 
I and efficiency. We are PURE-FOOD SPE- 
CIALISTS, catering to people who like and | 
appreciate our OLD-FASHIONED products 
I under up-to-date methods. | 

| Our success is the proof of our assertions. 
I The thousands we feed daily are our testi- 
; monials. 

I Get the HARTFORD LUNCH HABIT — 
£ it 's sanitary and sane. 

FRANK B. WJLLARD, 
President Hartford Lunch Co. 



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J 
I 

By ELBERT HUBBARD 

A Love-Story with ! " " 5 
a charm all 
its own 

■ < 1 

4 Tribute to a 
Woman that is a 

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I Published by THE HARTFORD LUNCH COM- i 
? PANY, NEW YORK, AND PRINTED BY ? 
| THE ROYCROFTERS, EAST AURORA, N. Y. \ 






Copyright, 1916, 
By The Roycrofters 

am 

Mrs. Opal L- Kunz 
S*pt. 13 1934 



FOREWORD 

ALTHOUGH Robert Louis Balfour 
Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, and died in the South Sea 
island of Samoa, he belongs peculiarly 
to America. Here it was that he first 
gained recognition as a writer of the 
first rank, and in the hearts of Ameri- 
cans his name will ever hold first place 
as the apostle of cheerfulness. He will 
ever be remembered as the most beloved 
writer of his age, which he did so 
much to cheer and stimulate by his 
example *» a+ 

As a story-teller, Stevenson stands 
supreme. Who does not read with quick- 
ening heart-beat of Kidnapped, Treasure 
Island, and David Balfour — not to men- 
tion the weird Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 
the whimsical Silverado Squatters, the 
ringing challenge of Father Damien, the 



deliciously quaint Will o* the Mill, and 
the noble Vailima Prayers ? 
I offer no apology therefore in presenting 
for this month's Hartford the story of 
Stevenson's love for Fanny Osbourne, as 
told by that incomparable delineator of 
character — Elbert Hubbard. It is such a 
tale as will move you, as it has me, to 
smiles and tears and a higher apprecia- 
tion of that eloquent truth : " Love is all. 
I say unto you that no man hath power 
to overestimate the importance of Love." 
— F. B. Willard. 




ROBERT LOUIS 
-- STEVENSON >- 

lOBERT LOUIS was 
an only son, and 
was alternately dis- 
ciplined and hu- 
mored, as only sons 
usually are s* His 
i father was a civil 
engineer in the employ of the Northern 
Lights Company, and it was his busi- 
ness to build and inspect lighthouses. 
At his office used to congregate a motley 
collection of lighthouse-keepers, retired 
sea-captains, mates out of a job — and 
with these sad dogs of the sea little 
Robert used to make close and confi- 
dential friendships. 

The boy was flat-chested and spindle- 
shanked and used to bank on his physical 

5 

// you have not lunched at the " HARTFORD " 
you have missed something worth while. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



weakness when lessons were to be evaded. 
d. He was two years at the Edinburgh 
Academy, where he reduced the cutting 
of lectures and recitations to a system, 
and substituted Dumas and Scott for the 
more learned men who prepared books 
for the sole purpose of confounding 
boys &* $+ 

As for making an engineer of the 
young man, the stern, practical father 
grew utterly discouraged when he saw 
mathematics shelved for Smollett. Robert 
was then put to studying law with a 
worthy barrister. Law is business, and to 
suppose that a young man who religiously 
spent his month's allowance the day it 
was received, could make a success at the 
bar shows the vain delusion that often 
fills the parental head. 
Stevenson's essay, A Defense of Idlers, 
shows how no time is actually lost, not 
even that which is idled away. But this 

6 
Great love-letters are written only to great 
women. — Elbert Hubbard. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



is a point that is very hard to explain to 

ambitious parents. 

At twenty-three Robert Louis sold an 

essay for two pounds, and referred gaily 

to himself as " one of the most popular 

and successful essayists in Great Britain.' ' 

He was still a child in spirit, dependent 

upon others for support. He looked like 

a girl with his big wide-open eyes and long 

hair. As for society, in the society sense, 

he abhorred it and would have despised 

it if he had despised anything. The soft 

platitudes of people who win distinction 

by being nothing, doing nothing, and 

saying nothing except what has been said 

before, moved him to mocking mirth. 

From childhood he was a society rebel a+ 

He wore his hair long, because society 

men had theirs cut close. His short velvet 

coat, negligee shirt and wide-awake hat 

were worn for no better reason. His long 

cloak gave him a look of haunting 

7 

Don't misjudge our FOOD because of our prices. 

Economies in service make these prices possible. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



mystery, and made one think of a stage 
hero or a robber you read of in books. 
Motives are mixed, and foolish folks who 
ask questions about why certain men do 
certain things, do not know that certain 
men do certain things because they wish 
to, and leave to others the explanation 
of the whyness of the wherefore. 
People who always dress, talk and act 
alike do so for certain reasons well under- 
stood, but the man who does differently 
from the mass is not so easy to analyze 
and formulate. 

The feminine quality in Robert Louis' 
nature shows itself in that he fled the 
company of women, and with them held 
no converse if he could help it. He never 
wrote a love-story, and once told Crockett 
that if he ever dared write one it would 
be just like The Lilac Sunbonnet. 
Yet it will not do to call Stevenson 
effeminate, even if he was feminine. He 

8 

Let us make the HARTFORD LUNCH a Get- 
Together Club. You get busy and tell us what 
you like and how you like it — we will get busy 
getting it for you. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



had a courage that outmatched his 
physique. Once in a cafe in France, a 
Frenchman remarked that the English 
were a nation of cowards. The words had 
scarcely passed his lips before Robert 
Louis flung the back of his hand in the 
Frenchman's face. Friends interposed, 
and cards were passed, but the fire-eating 
Frenchman did not call for his revenge or 
apology — much to the relief of Robert 
Louis £•» 50» 

In his twenty-fourth year Robert Louis 
discovered a copy of Leaves of Grass, 
and he and his cousin Bob reveled in 
what they called " a genuine book." 
They heard that Michael Rossetti was to 
give a lecture on Whitman in a certain 
drawing-room. They attended, without 
invitation, and walked in coatless, just 
as they had heard that Walt Whitman 
appeared at the Astor House in New 
York, when he went by appointment to 

9 

Is n't this a charming love-story? You will note 
that we are raising the standard of the HART- 
FORD BOOKLETS with each edition. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



meet Emerson. After hearing Rossetti 
discuss Whitman they got the virus fixed 
in their systems. 

They walked up Princess Street in 
their shirt-sleeves, and saw fair ladies 
blush and look the other way. Next they 
tried sleeveless jerseys for street wear, 
and speculated as to how much clothing 
they would have to abjure before women 
would entirely cease to look at them «•» 

THE hectic flush was upon the cheek 
of Robert Louis, and people said he 
was distinguished. " Death admires me, 
even if publishers do not," he declared. 
CL The doctors ordered him South and 
he seized upon the suggestion and wrote 
Ordered South — and started, along with 
Cousin Bob. 

The young men got accommodations at 
" Siron's." This was an inn for artists — 
artists of slender means — and the patrons 

10 
Don't get your HEADLIGHT behind— PROG- 
RESS is in front. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



at Siron's held that all genuine artists 

had slender means. The rate was five 

francs a day for everything, with a 

modest pro-rata charge for breakage. The 

rules were not strict, which prompted 

Robert Louis to write the great line, 

" When formal manners are laid aside, 

true courtesy is the more rigidly exacted.' ' 

Siron's was an inn, but it was really 

much more like an exclusive club, for if 

the boarders objected to any particular 

arrival, two days was the outside limit 

of his stay. Buttinsky the bounder was 

interviewed and the early coach took the 

objectionable one away forever. 

And yet no artist was ever sent away 

from Siron's — no matter how bad his 

work or how threadbare his clothes — if 

he was a worker ; if he really tried to 

express beauty, all of his eccentricities 

were pardoned and his pot-boiling granted 

absolution. But the would-be Bohemian, 

11 
Whatsoever God has joined together, no man 
can put asunder. — Elbert Hubbard. 

HARTFORDILUNCH COMPANY 



or the man who was in search of a thrill, 
or if in any manner the party on proba- 
tion suggested that Madame Siron was 
not a perfect cook and Monsieur Siron 
was not a genuine grand duke in disguise, 
he was interviewed by Bailley Bodmer, 
the local headsman of the clan, and 
plainly told that escape lay in flight «•» 
There were several Americans at Siron's, 
Whistler among them, and yet Americans 
as a class were voted objectionable, 
unless they were artists, or perchance 
would-bes who supplied unconscious 
entertainment by an excess of boasting. 
CL Women, unless accompanied by a 
certified male escort, were not desired 
under any circumstances. And so matters 
stood when the " two Stensons " — the 
average Frenchman could not say Steven- 
son — were respectively Exalted Ruler 
and Chief Councilor of Siron's. 
At that time one must remember that the 
12 

A SQUARE MEAL, if you wish, for a moderate 
sum. HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY. 



landlady and the chambermaid might be 
allowed to mince across the stage, but 
men took the leading parts in life. 
The cousins had been away on a three- 
day tramping tour through the forest. 
When they returned they were duly 
informed that something terrible had 
occurred — a woman had arrived — an 
American woman with a daughter aged, 
say, fourteen, and a son twelve. They 
had paid a month in advance and were 
duly installed by Siron. Siron was sum- 
moned and threatened with deposition. 
The poor man shrugged his shoulders in 
hopeless despair. Mon Dieu ! how could 
he help it — the " Stensons " were not at 
hand to look after their duties — the 
woman had paid for accommodations, 
and money in an art colony was none too 
common ! $+■ s+ 

But Bailley Bodmer — had he, too, been 
derelict? Bailley appeared, his boasted 

13 

Variety enough to suit any human taste. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



courage limp, his prowess pricked. He 
asked to have a man pointed out — any 
two or three men — and he would see that 
the early stage should not go away 
empty. But a woman, a woman in half- 
mourning, was different, and beside, this 
was a different woman. She was an 
American, of course, but probably against 
her will. Her name was Osbourne and 
she was from San Francisco. She spoke 
good French and was an artist. 
One of the Stevensons sneezed ; the other 
took a lofty and supercilious attitude of 
indifference £•» «•» 

It was tacitly admitted that the woman 
should be allowed to remain, her presence 
being a reminder to Siron of remissness, 
and to Bailley of cowardice. 
So the matter rested, the Siron Club 
being in temporary disgrace, the un- 
pleasant feature too distasteful even to 
discuss so so 
14 

A cup of COFFEE now and then gives proper 
nerve to businessmen. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



As the days passed, however, it was dis- 
covered that Mrs. Osbourne did not make 
any demands upon the Club. She kept 
her own counsel, rose early and worked 
late, and her son and daughter were well 
behaved and inclined to be industrious in 
their studies and sketching. 
One day it was discovered that Robert 
Louis had gotten lunch from the Siron 
kitchen and was leading the Osbourne 
family on a little excursion to the wood 
back of Rosa Bonheur's. 
Self-appointed scouts who happened to 
be sketching over that way came back 
and reported that Mrs. Osbourne was 
seen painting, while Robert Louis sat on 
a rock near by and told pirate tales to 
Lloyd, the twelve-year-old boy. 
A week later Robert Louis had one of his 
" bad spells," and he told Bob to send 
for Mrs. Osbourne. 

Nobody laughed after this. It was silently 

15 

INDIGESTION is a " Lobster-Palace " disease 

—nothing like it in the HARTFORD LUNCH. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



and unanimously voted that Mrs. Os- 
bourne was a good fellow, and soon she 
was enjoying all the benefits of the Siron 
Club. When a frivolous member sug- 
gested that it be called the Siren Club he 
was met by an oppressive stillness and 
black looks. 

Mrs. Osbourne was educated, amiable, 
witty and wise. She evidently knew 
humanity, and was on good terms with 
sorrow, although sorrow never subdued 
her ; what her history was nobody sought 
to inquire. When she sketched, Robert 
Louis told pirate stories to Lloyd. 
The Siron Club took on a degree of sanity 
that it had not known before. Little 
entertainments were given where Mrs. 
Osbourne read to the company from an 
unknown American poet, Joaquin Miller 
by name, and Bob expounded Walt 
Whitman s©> so 
The Americans as a people evidently 

16 
Supplying the CHOICEST FOOD at moderate 
prices is human service. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



were not wholly bad — at least there was 
hope for them. 

Bob began to tire of Barbizon, and 
finally went back to Edinburgh alone. 
Arriving there he had to explain why 
Robert Louis did not come, too. Robert 
Louis had met an American woman, and 
they seemed to like each other. 
The parents of Robert Louis did not 
laugh — they were grieved. Their son, 
who had always kept himself clear from 
feminine entanglements, was madly, 
insanely in love with a woman, the 
mother of two grown-up children, and a 
married woman and an American at that 
— it was too much ! 

Just how they expostulated and how 
much will never be known. They declined 
to go over to France and see her, and 
they declined to have her come to see them 
— a thing Mrs. Osbourne probably would 
not have done at that time, anyway. 

17 

Don't pry the day open with a liquid jimmy, or 

Nemesis will surely pinch you. — Elbert Hubbard. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



But there was a comfort in this : their son 

was in much better health, and several of 

his articles had been accepted by the 

London magazines. 

So three months went by, and suddenly 

and without notice Robert Louis appeared 

at home, and in good spirits. 

As for Mrs. Osbourne, she had sailed for 

America with her two children. The elder 

Stevensons breathed more freely. 

ON August Tenth, Eighteen Hundred 
Seventy-nine, Robert Louis sailed 
from Glasgow for New York on the 
steamship Devonia. It was a sudden 
move, taken without consent of his 
parents or kinsmen. The young man 
wrote a letter to his father, mailing it at 
the dock. When the missive reached the 
father's hands, that worthy gentleman 
was unspeakably shocked and terribly 
grieved. He made frantic attempts to 
18 

How much are your TIPS annually? At the 

"HARTFORD" you pocket your own tips. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



reach the ship before it had passed out 
of the Clyde and rounded into the North 
Sea, but it was too late. 
He then sent two telegrams to the Port 
of Londonderry, one to Louis begging 
him to return at once as his mother was 
very sick, and the other message to the 
captain of the ship ordering him to put 
the wilful son ashore bag and baggage. 
d The things we do when fear and haste 
are at the helm are usually wrong, and 
certainly do not mirror our better selves. 
However, children do not live with their 
forebears for nothing — they know their 
parents just as well as their parents know 
them. Robert Louis reasoned that it was 
quite as probable that his father lied as 
that his mother was sick. He yielded to 
the stronger attraction — and stuck to 
the ship. 

He was sailing to America because he 
had received word that Fanny Osbourne 

19 

Anybody can CUT PRICES, but it takes BRAINS 
to make a BETTER ARTICLE. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



was very ill. Half a world divided them, 
but attraction to lovers is in inverse 
ratio to the square of the distance. 
He must go to her ! 

She was sick and in distress. He must go 
to her. 

The appeals of his parents — even their 
dire displeasure — the ridicule of relatives, 
all were as naught. He had some Scotch 
obstinacy of his own. Every fiber of his 
being yearned for her. She needed him. 
He was going to her ! 
Of course his action in thus sailing away 
to a strange land alone was a shock to his 
parents. He was a man in years, but they 
regarded him as but a child, as indeed he 
was. He had never earned his own living. 
He was frail in body, idle, erratic, 
peculiar. His flashing wit and subtle 
insight into the heart of things were quite 
beyond his parents — in this he was a 
stranger to them. Their religion to him 
20 

We are putting INTELLIGENT LABOR and 
EFFICIENT METHODS into the LUNCH 
BUSINESS — hence our success. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



was gently amusing and he congratulated 
himself on not having inherited it. He 
had a pride too, but Graham Balfour says 
it was French pride, not the Scotch brand. 
His own velvet jacket and marvelous 
manifestations in neckties added interest 
to the show. And that he admired his 
own languorous ways there is no doubt. 
His Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he declared 
in sober earnest in which was concealed a 
half-smile, was autobiography. And this 
is true, for all good things that every 
writer writes are a self-confession. 
Stevenson was a hundred men in one and 
" his years were anything from sixteen 
to eighty,' ' says Lloyd Osbourne in his 
Memoirs. C. But when a letter came from 
San Francisco saying Fanny Osbourne 
was sick, all of that dilatory, procrastinat- 
ing, gently trifling quality went out of his 
soul and he was possessed by one idea — 
he must go to her ! 

21 

Do not underestimate the LUNCH BUSINESS. 
To feed thousands daily, as does the " HART- 
FORD/' is a man's job. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



The captain of the ship had no authority 
to follow the order of an unknown person 
and put him ashore, so the telegram was 
given to the man to whom it referred. He 
read the message, smiled dreamily, tore 
it into bits and dropped it on the tide. 
And the ship turned her prow toward 
America and sailed away. 
So this was the man who had no firmness, 
no decision, no will ! €L Aye, heretofore 
he had only lacked a motive. 
Now love supplied it. 

ROBERT LOUIS was a sick man. 
The ship was crowded, and the 
fare and quarters were far from being 
what he always had been used to. The 
people he met in the second cabin were 
neither literary nor artistic, but some of 
them had right generous hearts. 
On being interrogated by one of his mess- 
mates as to his business, Robert Louis 
22 

When brains and fingers connect, so does every- 
thing else. — Kaufman. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



replied that he was a stone-mason. The 
man looked at his long, slim, artistic 
fingers and knew better, but he did not 
laugh. He respected this young man with 
the hectic flush, reverenced his secret 
whatever it might be, and smuggled 
delicacies from the cook's galley for the 
alleged stone-mason. " Thus did he 
shovel coals of fire on my head until to 
ease my heart I called him aft one moon- 
light night and told him I was no stone- 
mason, and begged him to forgive me for 
having sought to deceive one of God's 
own gentlemen." 

Meantime, every day our emigrant 
turned out a little good copy, and this 
made life endurable, for was it not Robert 
Louis himself who gave us this immortal 
line, " I know what pleasure is, for I 
have done good work." 
He was going to her. 
Arriving in New York he straightway 

23 

We SPECIALIZE in everything we MAKE— our 
BAKERS are artists in their line. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



invested two good dollars in a telegram 
to San Francisco, and five cents in 
postage on a letter to Edinburgh. 
These two things done he would take 
time to rest up for a few days in New 
York. One of the passengers had given 
him the address of a plain and respect- 
able tavern, where an honest laborer of 
scanty purse could find food and lodging. 
This was Number Ten West Street. 
Robert Louis dare not trust himself to 
the regular transfer-company, so he 
listened to the siren song of the owner of 
a one-horse express -wagon, who explained 
that the distance to Number Ten West 
Street was something to be dreaded, and 
that five dollars for the passenger and 
his two tin boxes was like doing the work 
for nothing. 

The money was paid; the boxes were 
loaded into the wagon, and Robert Louis 
seated upon one of them, with a horse- 
24 

If you wish for back numbers of the HARTFORD 
BOOKLETS send us your address. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



blanket around him, in the midst of a 
pouring rain, the driver cracked his whip 
and started away. He drove three blocks 
to starboard and one to port, and backed 
up in front of Number Ten West Street, 
which proved to be almost directly 
across the street from the place where 
the Devonia was docked. But strangers 
in a strange country can not argue — 
they can only submit. 
The landlord looked over the new arrival 
from behind the bar, and then through 
a little window called for his wife to 
come in from the kitchen. 
The appearance of the dripping emigrant 
who insisted in answer to their questions 
that he was not sick, and that he needed 
nothing, made an appeal to the mother- 
heart of this wife of an Irish saloonkeeper. 
C Straightway she got dry clothes from 
her husband's wardrobe for the poor man, 
and insisted that he should at once go to 

25 

We are not publishing these booklets for our 

health— we are after YOUR PATRONAGE. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



his room and change the wet garments 
for the dry ones. She then prepared him 
supper, which he ate in the kitchen, and 
choked for gratitude when this middle- 
aged, stout and illiterate woman poured 
his tea and called him " dear heart." 
€1 She asked him where he was going and 
what he was going to do. He dare not 
repeat the story that he was a stone- 
mason — the woman knew he was some 
sort of a superior being, and his answer 
that he was going out West to make his 
fortune was met by the Irish-like re- 
sponse, "And may the Holy Mother 
grant that ye find it." 
It is very curious how gentle and beauti- 
ful souls find other gentle and beautiful 
souls, even in barrooms and among the 
lowly — I really do not understand it ! s+ 
In his book Robert Louis paid the land- 
lord of Number Ten West Street such a 
heartfelt compliment that the traditions 
26 

Advertising gets customers, but it takes the 
" GOODS " to hold them — we are holding our 
customers. HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



still invest the place, and the present 
landlord is not forgetful that his pred- 
ecessor once entertained an angel 
unawares. When the literary pilgrim 
enters the door, scrapes his feet on the 
sanded floor, and says " Robert Louis 
Stevenson," the barkeeper and loafers 
straighten up and endeavor to put on 
the pose and manner of gentlemen, and 
all the courtesy, kindness and considera- 
tion they can muster are yours. 
The man who could redeem a West Street 
barkeeper and glorify a dock saloon must 
have been a remarkable personality s+ 
To get properly keelhauled for his over- 
land emigrant passage across the conti- 
nent, Robert Louis remained in New 
York three days. The kind landlady 
packed a big basket of food — not exactly 
the kind to tempt the appetite of an 
invalid, but all flavored with good-will — 
and she also at the last moment pre- 

27 

We strive to keep our BUSINESS, like our 

publicity, in the "GRADE A" CLASS— the best. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



sented a pillow in a new calico pillowcase 
that has been accurately described, and 
the journey began. 

There was no sleeping-car for the author 
of A Lodging for the Night. He sat bolt 
upright and held tired babies on his 
knees, or tumbled into a seat and wooed 
the drowsy god. The third night out he 
tried sleeping flat on the floor in the aisle 
of the car until the brakeman ordered 
him up, and then two men proposed to 
fight the officious brakeman if he did not 
leave the man alone. To save a riot 
Robert Louis agreed to obey the rules. 
It was a ten-day trip across the continent, 
filled with discomforts that would have 
tried the constitution of a strong man. 
Robert Louis arrived " bilgy " as he 
expressed it, but alive. 
Mrs. Osbourne was better. The day she 
received the telegram was the turning- 
point in her case. The doctor perceived 
28 

" Time is money!" If you could cash in the time 
you save lunching at the "HARTFORD"— 
forget it! HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



that his treatment was along the right 
line, and ordered the medicine continued. 
d She was too ill to see Robert Louis — 
it was not necessary, anyway. He was 
near and this was enough. She began to 
gain $+ &— 

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON and 
Fanny Osbourne were married May 
Tenth, Eighteen Hundred Eighty. 
The Silverado Squatters shows how to 
spend a honeymoon in a miner's deserted 
cabin, a thousand miles from nowhere. 
The Osbourne children were almost 
grown, and were at that censorious age 
when the average youngster feels himself 
capable of taking mental and moral 
charge of his parents. But these children 
were different ; then, they had a different 
mother, and as for Robert Louis, he was 
certainly a different proposition from 
that ever evolved from creation's matrix. 

29 

You can lunch well in the " HARTFORD " in 
fifteen minutes — drop into " high " and you can 
do it in eight. HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



He belongs to no class, evades the label, 
and fits into no pigeonhole. The children 
never called him " father " : he was 
always " Louis " — simply one of them. 
He married the family and they married 
him. He had captured their hearts in 
France by his story-telling, his flute- 
playing and his skilful talent with the 
jackknife. Now he was with them for all 
time, and he was theirs. It was the most 
natural thing in the world. 
Mrs. Stevenson was the exact opposite of 
her husband in most things. She was 
quick, practical, accurate and had a 
manual dexterity in a housekeeping way i 
beyond the lot of most women. With all 
his half-invalid, languid, dilettante ways, 
Robert Louis adored the man or woman 
who could do things. Perhaps this was 
why his heart went out to those who go 
down to the sea in ships — the folk whose 
work is founded not on theories but on 

30 

The enterprise that promotes this kind of adver- 
tising will do " stunts " in the LUNCH BUSI- 
NESS. HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



absolute mathematical laws. C In their 
fourteen years of married life, Robert 
Louis never tired of watching Fanny at 
her housekeeping. " To see her turn the 
flapjacks by a simple twist of the wrist is 
a delight not soon to be forgotten, and 
my joy is to see her hanging clothes on 
the line in a high wind." 
The folks at home labored under the 
hallucination that Robert Louis had 
married " a native Californian, ,, and to 
them a " native " meant a half-breed 
Indian. The fact was that Fanny was 
born in Indiana, but this explanation 
only deepened the suspicion, for surely 
people who lived in Indiana are Indians, 
any one would know that ! Cousin Robert 
made apologies and explanations, al- 
though none were needed, and placed 
himself under the ban of suspicion of 
being in league to protect Robert Louis, 
for the fact that the boys had always 

31 

We have another charming booklet following 
this one — get on our mailing-list. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



been quite willing to lie for each other 
had been well known. 
Mrs. Stevenson made good all that 
Robert Louis lacked. In physique she was 
small, but sturdy and strong. Mentally 
she was very practical, very sensible, 
very patient. Then she had wit, insight, 
sympathy and that fluidity of spirit which 
belongs only to the Elect Few, who know 
that nothing really matters much either 
way. Such a person does not contradict, 
set folks straight as to dates, and shake 
the red flag of wordy warfare, even in 
the interests of truth. 
Then keeping house on Silverado Hill was 
only playing " keep-house," and the way 
all hands entered into the game made it 
the genuine thing. People who keep house 
in earnest or do anything else in dead 
earnest are serious but not sincere. 
Sincere people are those who can laugh — 
even laugh at themselves — and thus are 

32 

Getting on our mailing-list is splendid, but 
getting on our CUSTOMER-LIST is the real 
thing — for both of us. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



! 






they saved from ossification of the heart 
and fatty degeneration of the cerebrum. 
The Puritans forgot how to play, other- 
wise they would never have hanged the 
witches or gone after the Quakers with 
fetters and handcuffs. Uric acid and 
crystals in the blood are bad things, but 
they are worse when they get into the 
soul &<* so 

That most delightful story of Treasure 
Island was begun as a tale told round the 
evening campfire for Lloyd Osbourne. 
Then the hearers begged that it be 
written out, and so it was begun, one 
chapter a day. As fast as a chapter was 
written it was read in the evening to an 
audience that hung on every word, and 
speculated as to what the characters 
would do next. All applauded, all criti- 
cized, all made suggestions as to what 
was " true " — that is to say, as to what 
the parties actually did and said. Treasure 

33 
You can enter the HARTFORD LUNCH with a 
different feeling than entering a cheap restaurant 
or a cheap lunch-room. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



■ 

Island is the best story of adventure ever 
written, and if anybody knows a better 
recipe for story -writing than the plan of 
writing just for fun, for some one else, it 
has not yet been discovered. 
The miracle is that Robert Louis the 
Scotchman should have been so perfectly 
understood and appreciated by this little 
family from the other side of the world. 
The Englishman coming to America 
speaks a different language from ours — 
his allusions, symbols, aphorisms belong 
to another sphere. He does not under- 
stand us, nor we him. But Robert Louis 
Stevenson and Fanny Osbourne must 
have been " universals," for they never 
really had to get acquainted : they loved 
the same things, spoke a common lan- 
guage, and best of all recognized that 
what we call " life " is n't life at the last, 
and that an anxious stirring, clutching 
for place, pelf and power is not nearly as 

34 

Our publicity is now merely sprinkling the public 

soil — a little later we shall turn on the hose. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



good in results as to play the flute, tell 
stories and keep house just for fun s+ 

ABOVE all men in the realm of letters 
Robert Louis had that peculiar and 
divine thing called " charm." To know 
him was to love him, and those who did 
not love him did not know him. This 
welling grace of spirit was also the pos- 
session of his wife. 

In his married life Stevenson was always 
the lover, never the loved. The habit of 
his mind was shown in these lines : 

TO MY WIFE 
Trusty, dusky, vivid, true, 
With eyes of gold and bramble dew, 
Steel true and blade straight, 
The Great Artisan made my mate. 

Honor, courage, valor, fire, 
A love that life could never tire, 

35 
With all our gettings let us get busy — help our- 
selves by helping each other. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



Death quench nor evil stir, 
The Mighty Master gave to her. 

Teacher, pupil, comrade, wife, 
A fellow-farer true through life, 
Heart-whole and soul free, 
The August Father gave to me. 

Stevenson was once asked by a mousing 
astrologer to state the date of his birth. 
Robert Louis looked at his wife soberly 
and slowly answered, " May Tenth, 
Eighteen Hundred Eighty." And not a 
smile crossed the countenance of either. 
Each understood. 

That the nature of Stevenson was 
buoyed up, spiritualized, encouraged and 
given strength by his marriage, no 
quibbler has ever breathed the ghost of a 
doubt. His wife supplied him the mother- 
ing care that gave his spirit wing. He 
loved her children as his own, and they 
36 

Our patrons include many of New York's most 
prominent businessmen. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



reciprocated the affection in a way that 
embalms their names in amber forever- 
more $+ 6+ 

When Robert Louis, after a hemorrhage, 
sat propped up in bed, forbidden to 
speak, he wrote on a pad with pencil : 
" Mr. Dumbleigh presents his compli- 
ments and praises God that he is sick so 
he has to be cared for by two tender, 
loving fairies. Was ever a man so blest ? " 
d Again he begins the day by inditing a 
poem, " To the bare, brown feet of my 
wife and daughter dear." And this, be it 
remembered, was after the bare, brown 
feet had been running errands for him 
for thirteen years. And think you that 
women so loved, and by such a man, 
would not fetch and carry and run and 
find their highest joy in ministering to 
him? If he were thrice blest in having 
them, as he continually avowed, how 
about them ? It only takes a small dole of 

37 
It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability 
to discover ability in others is the true test. 
HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



love when fused with loyalty to win the 
abject, doglike devotion of a good woman. 
On the day of his death Stevenson said to 
his wife, " You have already given me 
fourteen years of life." And this is the 
world's verdict — fourteen years of life 
and love, and without these fourteen 
years the name and fame of Robert Louis 
Stevenson were writ in water ; with them 
" R. L. S." has been cut deep in the 
granite of time, but better still, the gentle 
spirit of Stevenson lives again in the 
common heart of the world in lives made 
better $+■ s* 



38 

If you have anything to suggest that will improve 
the HARTFORD LUNCH, please advise us. Our 
vision may be clouded by our close contact with 
this business. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



! HOULD you be interested in 
our booklets, fill in this blank 
and hand it to the Counterman 
or mail it to our office — 364 West 50th 
Street, New York City. This will place 
your name upon our mailing list and 
assure you a booklet by mail every 
little while as published. 

Hartford Lunch Company 



Name.. 



Street. 



City . 



Have you read "Wu Ting-Fang" by the late 
Elbert Hubbard ? A card to our office, 364 West 
SOth St., will bring you one. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 



<« 



Yankee Donuts 



CHE doughnuts served by us have per- 
haps done as much to spread the fame 
of Hartford Lunches as any other one 
thing. Our doughnuts are light, puffy, 
rich and deliriously toothsome, because they are 
made from a recipe which brings out all the 
latent qualities of the ingredients. Their goodness 
is due to the purity and wholesomeness of the 
materials used — this alone is the secret of their 
excellence. 

C, But the proper blending of even the best 
ingredients is an art in itself, an art hitherto 
possessed only by a New England couple, who 
baked in their own home for us this incomparable 
comestible. Their facilities, however, were inade- 
quate to the demand, and so we just took over 
their process and are now making these delectable 
doughnuts under their supervision, and paying 
them a royalty on every doughnut we make. 

II So this, then, dear reader, is to say that we 
are now in position to supply " Yankee Donuts " 
in any quantity, for home consumption. Just ask 
the Counterman to fix you up a dozen or two. 
They 're, oh, so good ! 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 

Luck is like a lightning-rod — it can not hold 
what it catches. — Kaufman. 

HARTFORD LUNCH COMPANY 






«|» ) — ■■ IW 



LOCATIONS 



1544 Broadway 
1939 Broadway 
2232 Broadway 
2375 Broadway 
2837 Broadway 
3381 Broadway 
3772 Broadway 
122 West 42nd Street 
984 Eighth Avenue 
530 Willis Avenue (Bronx) 
612 West 181st Street 
79 West 23rd Street 
40 East 23rd Street 
127 Lenox Avenue 
Printing Crafts Building 
Eighth Avenue and 33rd St. 

Offices and Bakery 

360-364 West 50th Street 

NEW YORK 




ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 



